#22 Five Reasons Why Your Podcast Isn't Growing and Tips for Download Growth

Summary:
In today’s episode, Steve dives into the five main reasons your podcast isn’t growing and how to fix them. Whether your message isn’t clear or you’re relying too much on interviews, Steve breaks down the mistakes you might be making and shares actionable tips to turn things around. If you’ve been feeling stuck in neutral with your podcast, this episode is for you!

Key Takeaways:

1. Your Message Isn’t Clear: Podcasts that focus on a niche perform better. Studies show that 60% of listeners stick with shows highly relevant to their personal interests.
2. They Can’t Find You: With over 5 million podcasts out there and 75% of them "podfaded" away, your show can get lost in the mix. Make your podcast title clear and searchable, so it doesn’t end up in the graveyard of forgotten shows.
3. Your Cover Art Sucks: First impressions matter! If your cover art isn’t clear or eye-catching, people won’t click. Fix that by using bold, readable fonts and making sure it communicates what your show is about.
4. You Aren’t Talking About or Promoting It: If you’re not promoting your podcast, no one else will! Make it a habit to talk about it on social media and in real life. 93% of podcast listeners discover new shows via word of mouth.
5. You’re Only Doing Interview-Style Episodes: Stop hiding behind your guests. Solo episodes and client journey stories help you position yourself as an expert and build stronger connections with your audience.

Call to Action:
Is your podcast stuck in neutral? Apply for Steve’s 2 Week Tune-Up Program, starting November 1st, and get your podcast back on track. Email steve@sobersteve.com with the subject line "Two Week Tune-Up" to apply!

#Podcasting #PodcastGrowth #PodcastTips #RebrandYourPodcast #PodcastMarketing

Transcript

Steve: 0:00

Hey there. Podcasting bad-ass is it's your host sober Steve, the podcast guy. And today we're diving into five reasons. Your podcast isn't growing and probably could use a tune-up. If you've been feeling stuck with your podcast growth. Trust me, you're not alone. I've been there. And all that to give you some tough love. But before we jump in, I want to remind you all current podcasters about my two week. Tuna program that I'm starting on November 1st, for many of you, this might be new news. If you don't follow me on social media, but I am going to be doing my two week tune-up program where I'm able to take existing podcasters who are struggling to grow their downloads and to help them. Double five X, 10 X, their downloads. Give them all the tools they need in a two week. Tune up. So if you're ready to refine your podcasting skills and explode onto the new level and time for the new year. Make sure you apply by emailing me for more information@steveatsobersteve.com. With the subject line to week two nup. Now let's talk more about why your podcast might be stuck in neutral and how we're going to get you back into year, because the now is the perfect time of year to do it. We learned that last week. And when the episode I talked about why now is the perfect time to launch and rebrand. So I've already sold a lot of the new podcasters out there about why now is the perfect time to launch, but why is now the perfect time to rebrand as well? It's because the same reasons apply. You got to grow your show. Here are five signs that you need to really listen up and consider doing these. If you want to grow your downloads and connect to the right ideal listeners, which is what we all dream of at night, when we have our little podcasting dreams. So reason, number one, your show's not growing is because your message isn't clear. Do you know about podcasts that focus on a niche topic tend to perform better in terms of listener engagement, they always say the niches are in your reach. It Richard, the niches are in the riches even though it's niche. So it gets confusing. But at the end of the day, The more specific your podcast is the better it does its statistics. At this point, we've seen that listeners report that 60% of podcast listeners stick with shows that are highly relevant to their personal interests. So when you have shows that are about everything for everyone, They don't do as well because we connect better when there's a thing that kind of nexus a cohesive connection between the host and myself. As the listener that makes me get glued and coming back for more. And so the more directly you are talking to your ideal listener, which for most of my clients is also their ideal customer. The clearer it is that you were talking directly to them. But if you are making a very broad podcast about broad topics or switching it up, we're four weeks recovering one idea. That would be perfect for this one type of person, but the next week we're going to talk about something that's for a different audience altogether. It gets very confusing as to why someone would be clicking follow to keep your show downloading every single week and coming back for more so consistent verbiage, consistent branding, consistent message, and consistently showing up for listeners every single week with that same message is so important to growing your show. And if my clients come to me saying, I don't know why my show's not growing. 910 times. That's like the number one stumbling block where they're not doing something correctly in their 110% of the time. So to fix that, really write it out and journal it out. Who is your ideal? Listen, or if it's the first person who listened, whether it's your pod, Adam, or a pod Eve or pod, Steve. If you want to get me involved in it, but imagine the first person who's the perfect person that is just sitting there waiting and saying, I hope that you make this podcast what does that person look like? Where do they live? What are they interested in? What are their hobbies? Get to really know them. And then from there it gets easier to grow out from there. But having that ideal inspiration of. Through your ideal listener slash client slash target is. Helps make the entire journey working in reverse backwards, like knowing that the end result is getting that person to be happy. Should always be your number one goal. If you're podcasting for them. So number two reason, I've found some amazing podcast with amazing content. That took me for ever to find. And that is because of issues where they think of a clever name or changing two words together that aren't real words into words, but then they have autocorrect issues or spelling issues, or it sounds like something else entirely. I've heard of people doing shows that they thought were funny puns, but they're not words that people would put in to find it. I've heard of shows that include words that don't have anything to do with the show. And it's like, why are you including the, like a controversial word into your show title? That's it's if your show isn't about this controversial thing. So really think about making sure that your title of your show. Especially. And if you need out of a title extension to back you up and make sure that it's about who you are and who your ideal listener is and what the podcast is about. I try and make sure knowing that my podcast is called podcasting bad-ass tips and mindset tricks for success and monetization and growth. You get an idea of those are the types of things that we're going to be talking about in the show, launching podcasts, growing podcast, it's a podcast, poor podcasters or. Aspiring podcasters. I'm very clear on who I'm speaking with. So when I run by someone who says Hey, I want to come in front of your audience and talk about this thing. If it's not something that's going to be right for you, my ideal person, great, but also I want to make sure that you knew how to found me, find me. So I didn't do something clever about my sobriety and sober Steve or sober or anything. Cause it's not about my sobriety. This podcast is about podcasting. So I use all the right words in my title so that you can find me easier. Because at the end of the day, your name of your podcast should include what it is that it's about. And that's how people will find you when they're searching for your podcast. So make sure that's very clear if I hear the name of your podcast and I guess what it's about and I guess, wrong, that's a problem on your end, generally more so than it is my awareness of the industry that you're in. Because as a common listener, you shouldn't have to explain like that unless like you're only speaking to a certain subsect in which case, even then as to be super. Super duper, duper clear and not very vague or foggy or cerebral or for everything. That's a little bit of advice. If you're not doing that, it's going to make a really hard to grow especially with over 5 million podcasts, really the way that I consider it. Looking at the apple store right now with apple podcasts, you have over 5 million podcasts. And the reason they can't find you is that around 75% or more of those are pod faded away into existence, somewhere between three and eight episodes. For most of them. Like dead baby podcasts. It's really tragic and heartbreaking if we were saying they were human. So let's remember they're podcasts, but it's filled with like dead baby podcasts all over this graveyard. And you're a newborn podcast. You need to be able to really shout real loud with who you are and how to find you and what you're talking about in order to be found in this area. So being very clear with all of that is a very. Easy fix. Also fix your cover. Art chances are, if your show is not growing quickly and consistently. And people aren't finding you on a regular basis, like a wheel, you. The ebbs and flows, speeds up slows down, but that wheel keeps turning. If that wheel isn't turning at all. And you're content you're confident and is great. And your title is crystal clear. Your cover art probably sucks because when you get right down to it, if you search for even the perfect search word, you're going to get four to five or six episodes of artwork, depending on the sizing of whether you're looking at your phone screen, your iPad screen, your computer screen. It'll look slightly different, but at the end of the day, once you find. The podcast with the right words, for what you're searching for as a new listener. If you are looking at the different cover arts, you're going to pick the prettier one, the more eye appealing, one, the one where you look at it and you also visually connect with it the same way you visually connect with the name of the podcast. You visually connect with the artwork. So if your artwork is blurry, if there is not a picture of you and you're a service provider or a coach, there should be a picture of you unless that's the intention. I should be very clear the, to read the font, don't make cursive on cover art. What are we doing? People clear, bold, legible font that people can read that will stand out and is basically saying. Click me because otherwise they're going to click on the one that looks more visually appealing. Don't clash colors, don't put fades, and then colors that are within the fade over the it's. I've seen some really ugly cover are in my time, listening to podcasts. And I see happens even more as a podcast growth coach now. And so make sure that you ask yourself is my cover art crystal clear on. To who I am, what I'm offering and why they should click my cover art over the other one. It doesn't look clickable. And then ask yourself, are you talking about it? Are you promoting it on social media? Are you talking about it in your real life? Are you connecting it to your ideal listeners and where they hang out and where are they via bat? Whether that's in real life. Or professionally or on social media. If you're broadcasting, your podcasting is a big fucking deal. That's why you're a podcasting data. That's why you're listening to this show to grow yourself. But at the end of the day, like you're already having these episodes and content coming out. You should be shouting it from the rooftops. Everyone in your life should know that you have a podcast, because even if they're not your ideal listener, if they know that you have a podcast and have a vague understanding of what it's about, when they do talk to your ideal listener, they'll be able to say, Hey, I know my buddy has a podcast and they will connect you. I am seeing that the more vocal I am about my podcast, not just professionally, not just on social media, not just personally, but like everywhere. Make sure everyone knows that podcasting is part of my life. Part of my story, part of my journey. And that's what led to it becoming a part of my business. It's just the success from shouting from the rooftops. I am a podcaster and yes, I know it's a big deal that I'm doing this brave thing, especially when I might fail, but I'm doing it anyway. And that's bad-ass. And so I'm going to learn and grow on how to be fixed. And grow and get better, which is why you all are listening as you want to get better. So make sure you're talking about it. However you can, if on social media, whether you're on every single platform or on one platform, whether you're using an auto poster or posting it yourself, it's going to be posting the content period, then not posting the content at all. So be online. Be posting, be engaging and have a plan. So it's part of your routine, the same way. Each week you might record two episodes every other week, and then the in-between weeks are the editing and the uploading or whatever your pod, routine, and pod flow look like, make sure that you incorporate your social media blast. Every week within the episode coming out, you do X number of. Posts and this speed and this frequency on these platforms and have that be something you repeat. So you're creating that brand consistency to improve the searchability and discoverability of your show. It's a great wheel once you get it working. But if you're keeping quiet about the fact that you're even doing the thing, how are people gonna find out? How so talk about it. Post about it, share about it. It's a beautiful thing you're doing. So keep it up and get loud. And. If this is very rare, but I do have a fix for it luckily, but like sometimes I run into people where their message is clear. People can find them. Their cover. Art is actually pretty snazzy. Pretty cool. Especially the ones that I helped with, if I do say so myself and they are talking about it, they are promoting it and they're still struggling. And oftentimes the last thing that I'm able to identify that most of these people have in common when it's time for a rebrand or a tune-up. Is that they're only doing interview style episodes. I know I've talked in my coaching specific episode about expert style positioning, but really at the end of the day, If every single week, you are a blank slate coming onto your show to talk to a random guest. If you are only doing interview style episodes and you were coming in each week and asking questions and not sharing a lot about yourself, You might find that people are less likely to come back because at that point there was no you in your show. So they're less likely to have follow. I've been there. I've had that slump with gay when I wasn't putting myself out there enough, I very much was just, I don't know what I'm talking about. So let me just ask everyone every single week and I'll be the friendly guy that brings them all on. But at the end of the day, you also want to make sure that you're sharing enough about you. And your story and your expertise and your experience of what it is that you're talking about and why you're passionate about it and how it's relating to your life and your journey. The more you share about yourself and you're able to come off as an expert. The better for listener engagement and following and growing your podcast and your audience and your business. It's magic. So make sure that two great ways to do it are solo style episodes as well as client experience. Journeys and coaching style episodes. So definitely consider those if all else fails. You should really come on for a tune up sessions. So email me at steve@sobersteve.com for more information on how to apply for my two week tune-up program. Kicking off November 1st. And there you have it. These are the five reasons why your podcast isn't growing. And more importantly, how you can get started on fixing them. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I certainly. Have more to cover, especially in the special programs. So apply today at Steve. At sober, steve.com with the subject line two week tuneup. And thanks for tuning in podcasting. Bad-ass just keep pushing and I'll see you next Monday.